Mummies Iceman

The axe of "Otzi the Iceman (well-preserved mummy dated to 3300 BC) is made from copper. 

The case of Oetzi (or the Iceman), the frozen mummy found in 1991 on the Alps on the border between Austria and Italy and now kept at the Archaeological Museum of Bolzano (Italy), is also well known. AMS radiocarbon measurements from the laboratories of Zurich[78] and Oxford[79] on tissue and bone samples from the Iceman dated him to 4550 19 years BP. When calibrated, this radiocarbon age corresponds to three probable calendar time intervals between 3350 BC and 3100 BC. Consistent measurements were obtained by dating some of his equipment and also botanic remains from the discovery site. [80] In this context, it is important to note that dating of Oetzi represents a good example of the relevance of the behaviour of the calibration curve in the final precision of a radiocarbon measurement. Actually, in this case, despite a very high precision of the radiocarbon age ( 19 years), the special trend in the calibration curve around the dated period, i.e. in particular the so-called wiggles, prevents a more exact and unambiguous absolute age determination. 

Approximately 5000 years ago, a man set out to climb the Tyrolean Alps on the Austrian-Italian border. At death, he was between 40 and 50 years old and suffered from several medical ailments. Some scientists believe he was caught in a heavy snowfall, fell asleep, and froze to death. Others suppose he was murdered during his journey. Either way, his body was covered with snow almost immediately and, due to the freezing weather, rapidly became a mummy - The Iceman . In 1991, his body was re-exposed and discovered by climbers in the Otzal Alps, explaining why the Iceman , as he was called, was given the nickname Otzi (or, more commonly, as just Otzi). 

The data used in this example are from anthropology. A set of n 34 tissue samples from human mummies and references have been characterized by the concentrations of eight fatty acids (m = 8). These data have been selected from a larger data set worked out and evaluated in a project about the Tyrolean Iceman (Makristathis et al. 2002 Varmuza et al. 2005). 

At the left side of the plot are all samples from mummies exhibiting adipocere (glacier, lake, iceman), indicating a similarity of these samples. 

Iceman samples are within the cluster of glacier bodies, thus confirming other results about the origin of this mummy (and not confirming speculations, the iceman may be a fake). 

Application of multivariate statistics to fatty acid data from the Tyrolean Iceman and other mummies is a mosaic stone in the investigation of this mid-European ancestor, which is still a matter of research (Marota and Rollo 2002 Murphy et al. 2003 Nerlich et al. 2003). The iceman is on public display in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, stored at —6°C and 98% humidity, the conditions as they probably were during the last thousands of years. 

The mummy only weighs about 30 poimds (13 kg) and is about five feet (1.54 m) in length, but because of shrinkage this does not reflect the Iceman s true physique. According to the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, which houses the body, the living Otzi would have been about 63 inches tall (1.6 m) and weighed 110 pounds (50 kg). 

But certain conditions such as freezing or desiccation (removal of water) can greatly reduce the activity of these enzymes. This means that mummies such as Iceman, despite its great age, may contain some quantity of DNA in good enough shape to determine its sequence. There are other enemies of ancient DNA, though, including radiation, which breaks apart the strands, and chemical reactions such as oxidation and... 

South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology Oetzi/Otzi, the Iceman. Available online. URL http //www.archaeologiemuseum.it/f01 ice uk.html. Accessed May 28, 2009. The Web site of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, which houses Otzi, presents photographs and information on the mummy, clothing, and equipment. 

Bereuter, T. L., Reiter, C., Seidler, H., and Platzer, W. (1996). Post-mortem alterations of human lipids—Part II Lipid composition of a skin sample from the Iceman, in Human Mummies A Global Survey of Their Status and the Techniques of Conservation (K. Spindler, Ed.). New York Wien, 275-278. 

Makristathis, A., Schwarzmeier, J., Mader, R., Varmuza, K., Simonitsch, I., Chavez Chavez, J., et al. (2002). Fatty acid composition and preservation of the Tyrolean Iceman and other mummies. /. Lipid Res. 43, 2056-2061. 

The BBC s program on the Iceman aired in 2002, but this Web site was create to provide additional information to those who want to know more about the archeological investigation that involves a variety of sciences. For a more in-depth look at the mystery that surrounds this mummy, the BBC has also provided links to museums and other Web sites involved with studying the Iceman. 

Spatially resolved MS techniques that make use of ionic sources based on direct LDI have been employed to study art and archaeological objects since 2002 [43,44]. However, direct LDI is only effective in the study of a limited range of materials. TTie use of matrices that assist the ionization process induced by MALDI has expanded the applicability of LDI-based MS methods to the field of spatially resolved studies of organic components from works of art. Examples of the applicability of MALDI to the analysis of pigments [45], siccative oils [46], proteinaceous binders [47-49], and varnishes [50] are indeed reported in the literature. A proteomic approach based on the use of MALDI-TOF was also used to identify biological samples taken from the more than 5300-year-old Tyrolean mummy, also called iceman or Oetzi [51]. 

Figure 20 ice mummy from Otztaler Alps the Alpine Iceman, —5300 years bp. 

Following on this study, a similar FT-Raman investigation of specimens from the seven bodies in the ice-mummy cache from Qilakitsoq in Greenland (—500 years bp) revealed a similar conclusion [29], namely that protein degradation had occurred with the human skin, but to a lesser extent than that exhibited by the Alpine Iceman. Photographs of the... 

M Gniadecka, HGM Edwards, JP Hart Hansen, OF Nielsen, DH Christensen, SE Guillen, HC Wulf. NIR-FT Raman spectroscopy of the mummified skin of the Alpine Iceman, Qilakitsoq Greenland mummies and Chiribaya mummies from Peru. J Raman Spectrosc 30 147-153, 1999. 

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